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Relationships Between Long-Term Trend of Satellite-Derived Chlorophyll-a and Hypoxia Off the Changjiang Estuary

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Abstract

The Changjiang Estuary is one of the largest estuaries in the world, where hypoxia frequently occurs during the summer season. Recent routine surveys in the observed area found that the low dissolved oxygen (DO) in the summer bottom water was not rapidly expanding with increasing nutrient loads in Changjiang diluted waters. Based on the remote sensing data and in situ data, we examined the historic seasonal hypoxia observations for the bottom waters of the Changjiang Estuary and investigated the short- and long-term effects that runoff had on variations in DO and chlorophyll-a (Chl-a). Our analysis indicated that the recent areal variation in hypoxia was due to the changing Chl-a distribution and stratification conditions. The correspondence between hypoxia and surface Chl-a concentration showed that remotely sensed Chl-a larger than 3.0 mg L−1 was an essential condition for the formation of hypoxia off the Changjiang Estuary. The trend of Chl-a concentration was significantly impacted by the Three Gorges Dam (TGD), and the inter-annual variation of Chl-a was weakly affected by global-scale climate variability. After the TGD impoundment, the sediment loading in the Changjiang runoff and suspended sediments in Changjiang Estuary in August decreased, and the high Chl-a concentration moved landward. These shifted the hypoxia from its optimal forming conditions.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by The National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant no. 2016YFC1400903), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. U1609202, 41376184 and 40976109), and the Key Projects in the National Science and Technology Pillar Program (grant no. 2008BAC42B02). The 8-day-averaged Chl-a products (SeaWiFS 1998–2010 and MODIS 2011–2013) were obtained from NASA (http://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/). The data used in Figs. 4 and 5 have been properly cited and referred to in the reference list. The data used in Fig. 9 is from the Changjiang Sediment Bulletin (http://www.cjw.gov.cn/). Any additional data may be obtained from the corresponding author (e-mail: chenjianyu@sio.org.cn).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Satellite Ocean Environment Dynamics, Second Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Hangzhou, 310012, China

    Jianyu Chen, Delu Pan, Zhihua Mao, Qiankun Zhu & Bangyi Tao

  2. Department of Marine Science, Ocean College, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Jianyu Chen

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, 99164, USA

    Mingliang Liu

  4. School of Earth Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310012, China

    Ninghua Chen & Xiaoyu Zhang

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  1. Jianyu Chen
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  2. Delu Pan
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Correspondence to Jianyu Chen.

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Chen, J., Pan, D., Liu, M. et al. Relationships Between Long-Term Trend of Satellite-Derived Chlorophyll-a and Hypoxia Off the Changjiang Estuary. Estuaries and Coasts 40, 1055–1065 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-016-0203-0

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